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Researchers based in Africa are invited to participate in this first FoRGesurvey, which aims to ensure that programmeactivities respond to clearly identified needs.

The survey is open until 15 August 2023.

The Geological Survey of Namibia is the principal organizer of the 29th Colloquium of African Geology (CAG29) on behalf of the GSAf, as well as in cooperation with various stakeholders, including the Young Earth Scientists (YES) Network Namibia, the Geoscience Department-University of Namibia, the Geoscience Council of Namibia, the Namibian Hydrogeological Association, and the Department of Mining and Process Engineering-Namibia University of Science and Technology. The Local Organizing Committee (LOC) is quite dynamic and diverse in its composition, with representatives from associations, institutions, mining companies, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and the media.
The Colloquium of African Geology (CAG) is a major biennial meeting organized under the auspices of the Geological Society of Africa (GSAf). Professor W. Q. Kennedy, assisted by Dr. Tom Clifford, convened the very first CAG at the University of Leeds, England, in March 1964. There was a pulse of excitement that electrified the assembled audience from Africa, Europe, North and South America, Australia and New Zealand when Prof. Kennedy announced his new concept of a ‘Pan-African thermo-tectonic event’.
Since then, there have been 28 events, 18 of which were held in Europe, and only 10 in Africa, specifically in South Africa, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Morocco(twice), Mozambique and Tunisia.
With the inspiring theme “The earth sciences and Africa’s development: current realities, future projections”, CAG29 will be held at the Safari Hotel Conference Centre, Windhoek, from September 26th to 29th, 2023. At this stage of the organization, the LOC is calling for abstracts.

Download the full call: HERE

Conference website: https://cag29gsaf.org/

Are you an enthusiastic and motivated geoscientist committed to our planet and willing to raise awareness of the geological challenges and hazards in your region and/or country? Then, this call is for you!

The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) is the largest and most prestigious geological organization in the world (https://www.iugs.org/) and we are searching for young amateur reporters that can represent us in outreach activities. You don’t need to have experience reporting news, with a smart phone and a desire to inform the public you can do it.

Your task:
• Send short videos (max. 4 minutes) with interesting news about the impact of climate change and natural disasters in your country and/or region (in the case of natural disasters, remember that first and foremost, before reporting the news, you must help the victims).
• Send short videos (max. 4 minutes) providing reports on how your country is managing under the stresses of climate change and the energy transition.
• Send short videos (max. 4 minutes) where you interview relevant authorities and the public on their views of geoscience and climate change.
• Send short essays (one–page written news including photos) on the above issues to be posted on our social media.

You are free to send your news in any of the above formats (video or essays). All incoming news will be verified by an IUGS panel before being published. Since IUGS is committed only to our planet and thus to a better future for mankind, we will not accept news that involve:
• Sensitive topics on internal politics of any country
• News containing racial, xenophobic or homophobic comments.

We will be selecting a number of young reporters per country and/or region and we will provide you with contacts with key IUGS activities as part of this process. In addition, you will receive a certificate acknowledging you as IUGS young reporter and an IUGS reporter business card. The best stories will be selected and awarded at the end of each year. If this call caught your attention write us expressing your interest and we will send you detailed information about the format to make the videos and report the news (iugs.socialmedia@gmail.com)

Visit us, subscribe to our channel and like us at:
https://www.youtube.com/@theIUGS/featured
https://www.facebook.com/iugspage
https://www.instagram.com/the_iugs/
Twitter: @theIUGS

Most often, the mining industry is viewed as a social activity with the inherent goal of upgrading the societies in which the mining occurs. This is, in fact, wrong. Mining is an economic activity with the goal of creating profits for the shareholder or the investor.  Apart from investors, mining is closely associated with a core group of stakeholders that play a major role in the success of the venture, namely the government and the community.

Historically, the industry has had a bias towards catering to the needs of the investor. This is because the industry is characterized by many uncertainties and the investors have to safeguard their investment. Geologically, it is impossible to know the exact ore grade and quantity of the deposit until production commences. Commodity prices are also volatile, creating an additional risk factor, which may negatively affect investment and production decisions – an investor has no assurance of the price they will get for their product  and thus no certainty of the expected profits.

The industry is also characterized by high sunk costs and long exploration periods. It is estimated that only about 1 in 1000 exploration projects ever develop into commercially viable mines. Thus, for many exploration projects, most of the money spent is sunk costs – never to be recouped.  For the successful projects, it takes many years before any cash flow is generated from production, and the initial capital outlay recovered. However, although mining is a high-risk venture, it also has potential for high returns. It is this magnitude of potential returns that makes the mining industry stand out prominently among other economic activities. Returns to mining companies can be large, for example, Glencore’s revenue in 2021 was N$3530 billion, compared to Namibia’s GDP of N$ 207 billion in the same year.

This brings into play the government and the host communities. The government acts as a representative of the communities to ensure the responsible development of mineral resources. This includes putting in place laws and policies to guide mining activities, and monitoring compliance with those laws. The government is also responsible for collecting revenue from the extraction of these mineral resources. One of the unique characteristics of the mining industry is that mineral resources are non-renewable – once a deposit is extracted and depleted there is no going back. Each deposit therefore represents a single chance of maximizing the potential and benefit that can be derived from its existence, a short term cash flow, if you will.

In many mineral resource-dependent African countries, it is no secret that government oversight agencies tend to be underskilled and/or under-staffed. The government thus relies on the mineral resource companies to tell them how much ore is in the ground, the quality of that ore and how much they are getting paid for it. This creates a huge information asymmetry to the detriment of the governments. In 2020, the UN report “Tackling Illicit Financial Flows for Sustainable Development in Africa” reported that Africa loses at least N$691 billion a year due to illicit financial flows in the mining industry. Most of this loss is due to under invoicing – for example a company would tell the host country the value of the mined resources is N$500 million, when in fact they are worth N$650 million in the destination country.

The imbalance of information crucial for decision making is made worse by the fact that despite being a major global producer of mineral commodities, there isn’t a single metal exchange in Africa, and apart from SAMREC in South Africa, no country in Africa has a national code for reporting mineral and energy resources to stock exchanges and financial institutions. The importance of reporting codes and stock exchanges should not be underestimated. Reporting codes create an environment to hold those reporting mineral resources accountable. They provide guidelines for reporting and displaying information related to mineral properties and lead to the production of standardized reports.

Stock exchanges are obliged to disclose to the public various aspects of mineral projects. This, in part, mitigates the information imbalance between the industry players and the governments. Additionally, regulators in countries that host stock exchanges have means by which they hold listed companies accountable. For example, this year Glencore was found guilty of bribery and engaging in corruption in a number of African countries. Consequently, the UK and US fined Glencore US$333 million and US$ 1 billion, respectively. It is crucial to note that the countries where the corruption took place will not receive any of this money. Not to mention that the corrupt African counterparts are themselves not held accountable. In the case of Namibia, the exploration and mining sector is made up of various companies/investors – local, foreign, foreign government, Namibian government and joint ventures between the various parties. For companies that are listed, it is relatively easy to find both technical and non-technical details on the companies and their projects.  For all other companies, information available to the public is at the discretion of the company. This includes even information that should by law be made publicly available such as Environmental Management Plans. It is this information vacuum that leads to distorted regulatory oversight, a misinformed and dissatisfied public and inactive local civil society movements.

To address issues such as corruption, information asymmetry and misinvoicing, the Africa Mineral Development Centre (AMDC) has developed an African Mineral and Energy Resources Classification and Management System (AMREC) which is based on the United Nation Framework Classification for Resources.  The development of UNFC-AMREC, together with the Pan-African Resource Reporting Code (PARC), aims not only to ensure a harmonised resource classification and management system across Africa but also to encourage transparency in financial reporting and broader participation of African citizens in the industry. The harmonised, transparent and public availability of resource data and associated deals acts as a corruption deterrent by enabling the public scrutiny of information. Transparency also fosters a trust relationship between the various stakeholders. As opposed to reporting codes that only categorizes economic resources, AMREC has a provision to report uneconomic mineral occurrences. Governments can therefore use AMREC to facilitate mineral resource policy and strategy formulation for sustainable development. The bottom line is this – only when we know what we have, can we determine what it’s worth. Information truly is power.

The East African Institute for Fundamental Research (EAIFR) and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) wish to inform those who may be interested of a GEO@EAIFR webinar. This seminar will take place on April 18, 2023 and will be broadcast live on ZOOM. It will also be recorded and later posted on the ICTP-EAIFR YouTube channel, where one can find the previous recorded GEO@EAIFR webinars. Below all the details:

Speaker: David Bercovici, Frederick William Beinecke Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, USA.

Title: Generation of plate tectonics from grain to global scale.

When: April 18, 2023 at 16:30 (Kigali time).

Register in advance for this meeting by clicking here.

Biography:

David Bercovici received his BS in Physics from Harvey Mudd College (1982) and his PhD in Geophysics and Space Physics from UCLA (1989). After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (1989-1990), he joined the faculty at the University of Hawaii (1990-2000).  He moved to Yale in 2001 and has been there ever since as Professor and  Chair  (twice: 2006-2012, 2018-2021).  He is currently now the co-director of the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture (since 2021).  Bercovici received the Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union (AGU), along with AGU Fellowship in 1996, and the EGU Love Medal in 2022.  He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (2018) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences  (2015).  He is the author of the (semi-)popular science book “The Origins of Everything in 100 Page (More or Less)” (Yale Press, 2016).  His research is broadly in planetary physics and geophysical fluid dynamics.

Abstract:

The physics of rock deformation in the lithosphere governs the formation of tectonic plates, which are characterized by strong, broad plate interiors, separated by weak, localized plate boundaries. The size of mineral grains in particular controls rock strength, and grain-reduction can lead to shear localization and weakening in the strong ductile portion of the lithosphere. Grain damage theory describes the competition between grain growth and grain size reduction as a result of deformation, and the effect of grain size evolution on the rheological properties of lithospheric rocks. The self-weakening feedback predicted by grain damage theory can explain the formation of mylonites, typically found in deep ductile lithospheric shear zones, which are characteristic of localized tectonic plate boundaries. The amplification of damage is most effective when mineralogical phases, like olivine and pyroxene, are well mixed on the grain scale. Grain mixing theory predicts two co-existing deformation states of unmixed materials undergoing slow strain-rate, and well-mixed materials with large strain-rate; this is in agreement with recent laboratory experiments, and is analogous to Earth’s plate-like state.